Payback
by pitaC89
Summary: Sequel to Life Goes On.. Koji's son wants revenge for what Saka did to his father
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: I was going to wait to post this but I got a massive inspiration for this and thought the sequel to Koji's Son had been put off long enough so I decided to run two stories at one time.

Chapter 1

Optimus looked out over his command center. For once everything was running smoothly. No random catastrophes, no pipe bombings, no glue in the seats, no-

"Come back here you little brat-"

"Hey!"

Optimus sighed. So much for a nice, quiet day. He turned to see a young human boy running from his second-in-command, Jetfire. Hopefully he wouldn't be dragged into their latest… issue.

"Grandpa!" the boy yelled, jumping of the upper deck he'd been running on and landing on Optimus' back. Then he scurried up Optimus' back onto the Bot's shoulder.

Optimus sighed. He'd gone through this almost daily since the boy had learned to walk. "What did he do this time?" Optimus asked ignoring the boy's indignant 'humph'.

"He magnetized Sector C!" The vice-commander wheezed.

"All of it?" Optimus was surprised. Sector C was was huge, roughly the size of two human sports stadiums.

"Yes," Jetfire glared at the boy.

"How?" he looked inquiringly at the boy.

"I just had to find the right frequency and a power source-

"Ahem," Jetfire interrupted.

"Oh –um—I'll be talking to your father about this Rad," Optimus tried to sound stern. He failed miserably.

"Ok," Rad said, sliding down Optimus' arm and jumping to the ground.

After Rad had run from the room Jetfire turned to Optimus. "A little discipline wouldn't hurt him, you know."

"Would it stick?" Optimus asked. They both knew that they didn't have the heart to enforce a punishment for more than five seconds. Plus there were three Autobots that would help him find away to get around it.

"Besides it's not like we've never done anything like that," Optimus chuckled. In their younger years Optimus and Jetfire had been the bane of their commander's existence. Jetfire still had been until Rad had taken on the job of causing chaos.

"You could at least stop encouraging him. I'm starting to believe you really do have him working around here somewhere," Jetfire said seriously.

"Not until he's eighteen," Optimus laughed.

* * *

"So you got away with it?" Sideswipe asked sitting on his bunk in the room he shared with Smokescreen and Blurr.

"Yeah. Optimus says he's going to tell my Dad but there's not much he can do about it from Earth," Rad answered.

"How'd Jetfire react to everyone in his sector being stuck to the walls?" Smokescreen asked.

"He chased me all the way to the command center," Rad smiled.

"I bet Optimus was real happy about that," Smokescreen laughed.

"What are you laughing about?" Blurr asked sounding irritable. He had several pieces of scrap metal sticking to him. Obviously he worked in Sector C

"Nothing Blurr," Sideswipe said with an 'I'm so young and innocent' smile. Blurr grunted and walked to his bunk. They all knew that when Blurr had first started sharing a room with Sideswipe he'd wanted to ring Sideswipe's neck every five seconds. But as time went on even Blurr had to admit that the little guy grew on him. 'Like rust' according to Blurr.

"I've got to go. The library closes in an hour," Rad said jumping to the floor.

"Why do you spend so much time at the library? I was always under the impression that during summer break human children took a break from studying," Blurr said. Sideswipe, if he could, would have rolled his eyes. 'And he says I'm dense' the young Bot thought.

Rad shrugged and hurried out. Sideswipe watched him go with a somber look.

* * *

"You're not going to find anything," Sideswipe told the boy.

Rad didn't even look up from the computer screen.

Sideswipe sighed. "He's been in hiding since Sparter filed criminal charges against him. Humans and Autobots have been looking for thirteen years and haven't found some much as a trace. The odds of you finding him in the next two months are slim to none," Sideswipe said hoping for some reaction.

"I can't just sit back and let the statute of limitations run up. I have to try," Rad said softly. Sideswipe understood how Rad felt. It was hard to just let someone get away with hurting someone you love. He remembered what he'd gone through to get back at the guy who killed his brother. He'd been damn lucky that Hot Shot had followed him that night or else Blurr and Smokescreen would have a different roommate.

"What makes you think you'll find him on the Internet?" He asked.

"Teachers are required to give a head shot for staff IDs. They're kept in the school databases for security purposes. I've been running a scanning program I created with a picture from Dad's yearbook. It matches facial structure, allowing for increases and decreases in weight, and isn't thrown off eye and hair color changes," Rad explained.

Sideswipe saw flaw in that logic. "There isn't a school in Japan that would hire someone with charges of child abuse against him."

"Sideswipe, the guy was fluent in Spanish and English. Two of the most used languages on Earth. Do you no how many countries he could fit into in with those language skills. Hundreds. Why would he stay in Japan, where he couldn't get a job and had charges against?"

"So instead of trying to find a microchip in a scarp pile you're trying to find a microchip in a landfill," Sideswipe commented dryly.

"This program checks thousands of schools per minute. The smaller countries were mostly ruled out in a few hours. The only two countries that haven't been ruled out are the US and Britain," Rad said.

"And how many schools are located in those two countries alone? Hundreds? Millions? Rad you--"

BEEP!

"What was that?" Sideswipe asked

"It's found a match."

AN: The Armada bots are gonna be a little OOC because they have lived different lives than they did in Armada. Like Sideswipe and his brother (if you can't guess his brother's name you know nothing about G1).


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 2

"He magnetized Sector C? All of it?" Koji asked. He'd been surprised when he received a call from Optimus. The Autobots hated to pay long distance transmission bills even if it was there leader racking them up.

"Yes, all of it" Optimus sighed.

"I bet Jetfire was happy about that" Koji laughed.

"So happy, my audio receptors are still ringing" Optimus said.

"You were the one who said that if he could run an entire army for a couple million years he could take care of a thirteen year old for two months" Koji laughed.

"Raised you, didn't I?" Optimus defended.

"I was older and had different tastes. Rad likes to play practical jokes. I liked to raise hell, get drunk, and run all over Cybertron" Koji reminded him. A week before Optimus had offered to watch Rad for the first two months of summer. The official reason was that Optimus missed his 'grandson' and wanted to spend time with him but most people involved knew the real reason. The statute of limitations (Which was a new pice of legislation Saka's lawyer uncle had had pushed through) was about to run up on the charges against Hao Saka and Koji didn't want Rad on Earth when Saka suddenly had his freedom. Koji would have sent all of his children but the two youngest were in summer school, go figure.

"So how are Sono and Ax doing?" Optimus asked. The look Koji gave him was hilarious.

"They're in summer school, missing a trip to Cybertron. How do you think they're doing?" Koji said.

"We can always have them finish summer school up, here. We have the proper facilities now for school children" Optimus offered.

"No, they're fine here. We were probably overreacting when we sent Rad up, but…"

"Rad knows about Saka. The twins don't. You think Rad will do something like go after Saka once the statute runs up" Optimus finished for the boy.

"Saka's going to come back to Tokyo once the charges against him are no longer valid. His family's been walking around with these smirks for the past week. It just puts me on edge. I know what the guy is capable of, half the stuff I never even told you about" Koji paused to take a breath. "He can't hurt me directly anymore but…"

"He's not stupid enough to go after any of your children. He wouldn't risk it" Optimus left the part about the threat he'd made to Saka while Koji had still been in high school.

"I know that as a manbut I can't convince myself of that as a father" Koji said. "Did that make any sense?"

"To a father, yes it does" Optimus smiled under his mask.

* * *

"Rad, this is not only stupid, it's dangerous, risky, and going to get us into so much trouble that you're going to be grounded until you're Optimus' age –which, I'd like to remind you, at last count was thirty million and holding- and I'll be working in Sector C for the rest of my function" Sideswipe ranted. 

Rad continued to pack his bag with various items, which included clothes, a laptop with lousy Internet service outside of the Milky Way (hence the library), and a tricked out Lazerbeak. He half listened and half thought about weather he needed to pack an extra pair of jeans or shorts.

"Are you listening? Optimus will have our heads- well my head- on a silver platter if we go through with this. Do you understand how bad this will end?" Sideswipe continued.

Rad looked at him for second. Then went back to packing. "If you're being the voice of reason you should know I never asked you to come" Rad said.

"And let you run all over completely unprotected" Sideswipe looked at him like he was nuts.

"I'll be safe. Uncle Ben's going to be with me," Rad said.

"I feel so much better" Sideswipe deadpanned.

"He knows how to fight. Did you see what he did when that guy accused him of being communist?" Rad asked.

"Ben was a soldier right? That's how he ended up being so close to your grandmother? " Sideswipe asked.

Rad nodded even though he didn't know for sure. He hoped Uncle Ben was a soldier. Half the weapons in Uncle Ben's basement were illegal unless you were military and the other half was illegal no matter what. Some of them Rad didn't even recognize.

"He's this close to being certifiably insane" Sideswipe demonstrated the distance with his index finger and thumb.

"You do know fingers are touching, right?" Rad asked.

"Yes"

"Are you done being the voice of reason?"

"Yes" Sideswipe said.

"Ok here's the plan"

* * *

"So Ben is taking you on a road trip?" Optimus questioned. He seemed reluctant to believe anyone would suggest such a thing. 

"Yes"

"And Sideswipe is going with you?" Optimus was really the only one who could give permission for Sideswipe to go, but everyone knew he wouldn't deny Rad anything with in reason.

"Yes" Rad nodded again.

"And your parents have agreed to this?" They had given in when Ben had done his helium impression.

"Yes"

"Ok then" Optimus looked concerned but there was really nothing he could do if Koji and T-Ai had already agreed to it. He felt even more concerned when Rad gave his cheeriest smile.

* * *

"I can't believe how easy that was", Sideswipe laughed. 

"Optimus is like your typical grandparent. A pushover when it comes to something their grandchild wants" Rad explained.

Sideswipe shook his head at this. " So where are we off to?"

"Some place in the US. A small town called High Desert"

AN: This fic will get updated faster than Koji Son II because i have a clear view of where i want this to go right now and don't want to lose it


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 3

"Uncle Ben!" Rad yelled. Ben was standing at the exit of the Roswell Base (hehehe) waiting for his nephew.

"Hi Rad" Ben said in his helium voice. It was odd seeing a Five foot nine man speak with such a weird voice but Rad ignored it, figuring his Uncle had spent too much time around deadly chemicals. Probably C4.

"Hi Uncle Ben. How's it going?" Rad asked.

"Fine. Are you ready for the Saka hunting?" Ben smiled holding up a shotgun that both Rad and Sideswipe would have sworn wasn't there a minute ago.

"Yeah but this is more of a reconnaissance mission than and seek and destroy mission" Rad said sweat dropping at his uncle's eagerness.

"Aww, you never let me have any fun" Ben deflated. The shotgun, Rad and Sideswipe noticed, was now conspicuously absent from Ben's hand.

"If things get bad, you can go after Saka with a flamethrower" Rad conceded.

"Yaaaay!" Ben cheered waving a new weapon around.

"Umm… that's a rocket launcher," Sideswipe said, with optics widened.

"Oh, sorry" in the next second Ben was waving a flamethrower in the air.

Rad and Sideswipe sweat dropped.

'Well at least he isn't filling a water balloon with acid and chucking it at various world leaders… again. That poor Frenchmen' Rad lamented.

* * *

"We're traveling in style today" Ben laughed behind the wheel of a blue Lamborghini.

"Could you try not to touch anything, please?" Sideswipe asked the man. He really didn't trust this guy in his driver's seat but it would look odd if a thirteen year old was driving. Even though everyone on earth knew about the Autobots they didn't want anything to tip Saka off to who Rad really was. The media left Koji alone after a few years so no recent pictures of Rad had appeared on the news or in the paper so they were pretty sure Saka wouldn't recognize Rad on sight.

"Not that I'm complaining Rad, but why didn't you just tell Optimus about this if it's purely reconnaissance?" Ben asked after he was done pouting about not being able to drive.

"Optimus would send a group of Autobots to check it out. Saka would realize that they were on to him and run," Rad explained. "Plus I'm not certain this guy's Saka. He was the only match in the system but there is a three percent chance for error"

"Ok. How do you plan on proving its Saka?"

"Find out how long he's been in town, see if he has a son, find out how old his son is, and check out his record" Rad told him. Ben nodded. His nephew had thought this through.

* * *

"I'm guessing this town's founders didn't have very big imaginations," Ben said looking around. The main part of the town had a few trees and a little grass but other wise the place was dust and sand as far as you could see.

"No kidding. Good thing I packed sun block" Rad said shielding his eyes from the glare of the noon sun.

"I don't see what's so bad about it" Sideswipe commented.

"You have internal cooling systems so you don't feel the heat. Us on the other hand feel it full force and have to rely on external cooling systems," Rad explained.

"Huh?" Sideswipe and Ben said in unison.

"Humans sweat" Rad dumbed it down for them.

"Oh" Ben and Sideswipe said in unison again.

Ben looked around noticing the town was fairly small. The town sign had said the population was slightly above eight hundred. 'Not enough people to form a decent angry mob' Ben thought. And Sideswipe didn't have much trunk space so Ben had had to leave most of the C4 at the base. 'Oh well, at least I got to bring the RPG' Ben thought happily.

"So now what?" Sideswipe asked.

"Uncle Ben is going to find a hotel, you are going to act like a normal car, and I'm going to the middle school," Rad said.

"Why are you going to school? It's summer." Bed said.

"Saka works at the school. I have to check it out to figure out weather or not this guy really is Saka" Rad said.

"School's out" Ben said slowly.

"Teachers get one month off a year Uncle Ben. We have two months to get Saka arrested, so even if this is his month off we still have a month to get him", Rad said. " Now I'm going to check it out".

* * *

"Summer school sucks!" Rad was startled out of his slight doze by the proclamation. He'd been sitting on a bench watching the school while trying to figure out away to get into the school unnoticed. But heat and mid afternoon fatigue combined to make it nearly impossible to stay awake.

"Dude, you ok?" the boy who had been exclaiming his displeasure of school during the summer was now staring at Rad.

"Yeah. Just tired" Rad yawned. Maybe he should have gone with Ben to find a hotel. He really just wanted to lie down and sleep.

"You probably shouldn't sleep on a park bench," the red haired girl who was walking with the summer school reject, informed him.

Rad did a double take upon seeing her. She had red hair (duh), green eyes, and was wearing a skirt that came down to the middle of her thigh, flip-flops and an ankle bracelet. The one though entering Rad's mind was 'wow'.

Apparently the feeling was returned because the girl was looking him over with a blush.

"Alexis are you ok? You look like you're getting over heated" her friend said.

" I'm fine Carlos!" the girl yelled, momentarily forgetting Rad.

Rad sweat dropped. He could already hear what Sideswipe was going to say at this new development. 'You sure know how to pick 'em'.

AN: If you were expecting me not to have Rad and Alexis meet and fall in love on first sight you really don't know me very well. Rad and Alexis are the Koji and T-Ai of Armada.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4

"So you're in town with your uncle" Alexis said.

"Yeah. Last week he decided he didn't spend enough time with me. So some how he managed to convince my parents to let him take me on a road trip across the country" Rad laughed before taking another bite of his burger. After her outburst Alexis had introduced herself and now seemed determined to prove that she wasn't clinically insane. So she naturally invited him to dine with her at the local cool kids hang out.

Carlos had tagged along to get to know the new kid in town-which apparently were few and far between- and act as big brother/chaperone. Right now he was flirting with a girl in a mini-skirt and tube top. Such dedication in the protection of his friend was awe-inspiring.

"So, where are you from?" Carlos asked. The tube top chick had spotted an older, hotter guy and split.

"Baltimore" Rad named the city where his father had promised to marry his mother when he was seventeen and where he'd taken her back to ask her to marry him. It had been a pretty night; Rad knew that for a fact. The babysitter had canceled at the last minute and the Autobots were on high alert so his parents had had to take him along. He liked the inner harbor, especially where the historical ships had been anchored. Rad had leaned over the edge so far trying to get a better look at _The Constellation_ he fell in. His father was forced to jump in after him in his dress clothes. After the harbor patrol had announced that everything was all right and no harm had been done his mother declared the night a complete failure. Naturally his father salvaged the night by going down on one knee in his soaked clothes, long hair drooping into his face; in front of the harbor patrol and group of spectators and asked her to do him the honor of becoming his wife. The crowd had cheered when she said yes and Rad had jumped up and down clapping (he was three). Good times. A week later his mother had announced that she was pregnant again and the good times had gone out the window.

"I hear Baltimore's pretty" Alexis smiled. "And big." The second part was said almost wistfully.

"Yeah. Real easy to get lost though"

"Who needs the big city life? We got plenty out here without those dang new fangled cities" Carlos said in an old-timer accent. Rad and Alexis stared at him for a minute.

"You do realize that made absolutely no sense what so ever, right?" Rad asked. Carlos laughed. "I'll take that as a no" Rad said. Carlos became very engrossed with his food after that.

* * *

"Is this your hotel?" Carlos asked. 

"I guess. You said it was the only hotel in town. But I don't see Si- the car anywhere" Rad said looking around the parking lot for any sign of Sideswipe.

"Hey Rad!" Ben yelled as Sideswipe drove into the parking lot and parked next to the kids. "This dump is the best this town has to offer," he said getting out of Sideswipe's driver seat.

"It's not that bad… it's ummm…" Rad couldn't find anything really good about the place.

"The town it's self though has some possibilities for fun" Ben smiled handing Rad his suitcase.

"You, hold this" Ben told Carlos, handing him a rocket launcher that had been pinning his own suitcase down. Carlos looked scared out of his mind but he didn't drop it. He was probably afraid it would go off.

Rad sighed. At the rate Ben was going their cover would be blown long before they found Saka.

"RATTLE SNAKE!" Ben yelled grabbing his other, bigger rocket launcher from the trunk and firing on a rattlesnake that was sitting in the sun a hundred yards away. The following explosion rocked the parking lot. Carlos and Alexis took cover behind Sideswipe and various people near by hit the deck.

Rad on the other hand watched the flames and smoke unfazed. His indifference was partly because he was use to this kind of stuff (he grew up around the Autobots) and partly because he- like his uncle- found the raw power behind the wanton destruction enchanting.

"Is he loco!" Carlos yelled.

Rad turned back toward his new friends with a smile. "Probably".

* * *

"Are you sure your parents won't have a problem with me staying here?" Rad asked as Carlos unrolled a sleeping bag on his bedroom floor. 

"Sure. It's only until your uncle makes bail" Carlos reassured him.

"Or until he's indicted on weapons charges" Rad sighed. He only hoped his uncle had the sense not to try to escape.

Well he couldn't do anything about Ben right now. He might as well do some research on Saka, or Miyamory as he called himself here. Rad was in the prefect place to do some research; after all, where better to start than with one of Saka's students.

"So what's summer school like?" Rad asked hoping he could steer the conversation toward Saka.

"It sucks but Mr. Miyamory makes it fun" Carlos smiled.

'That was easy' Rad thought. He suddenly felt a spurt of anger. Of course Saka would treat a bunch of kids he had no real connection to him great but he would beat and torture his best-friend's son (AN: Did I forget to mention that Hao and Dr. Onishi were best friends until Dr. Onishi married Misa? Sorry!).

"Mr. Miyamory?" Rad asked, wanting more information.

"Yeah. he's a teacher at the middle school. Has been since it first opened" Carlos said.

"How old is he?" Rad asked slightly concerned about this point.

"Not to old. His son's still in high school"

Rad didn't quiet understand what Saka's son still being in high school had to do with Saka's age. Rad himself had just finished his freshman year and his father was twenty-nine.

"You can get to meet Mr. Miyamory later" Carlos said.

"Huh?"

"He and his family always comes over for Friday night dinner"

AN: I know Rad's the same age as Carlos and Alexis but if you grew up where he did do you honestly think you wouldn't learn enough to skip a grade.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I own the Sakas, the plot (I write these cause nobody else does so I know the plot belongs to me). Ben owns himself. Transformers belong to Hasbro.

Chapter 5

"Hey!"

"Shit" Ben hissed hiding the nail file he'd been using to try and chisel through the bars.

"What happened to these bars?" the guard asked.

"Rats?" Ben suggested weakly. The guard glared at him.

* * *

"I can't believe your teacher comes over for Friday night dinner" Rad shook his head helping Carlos set the table. 

"The teachers don't do that where you come from?" Mr. Lopez asked. "What?" he asked at Rad strange look.

"There are five hundred plus students in my class; Four thousand in my school. The teachers wouldn't have time to go to all their student's house in five years. Plus my teachers don't want to spend any more time with me than absolutely necessary to receive their paycheck" Rad said.

"Four thousand students! Where the hell do you go to school?" Mr. Lopez asked.

"Rad lives in the city Dad. Of course he's gonna go to a big school" Carlos told his father.

"Oh"

* * *

"I swear he tried to cut through the bars with something," the guard told his superior. 

"We took all his weapons at the crime scene, there's nothing he could have used to cause this amount of damage" the sergeant sighed.

"Then where did they come from?" the guard yelled pointing at the chisel marks.

"Rats maybe" the sergeant theorized.

* * *

Splash! 

Rad ducked before the water balloon could hit him. It was a habit he developed after Ben started using acid balloons. Carlos on the other hand…

"Dude! Watch it! Do I look like a football player to you?" Carlos yelled, sopping wet.

"Sorry man. I was aiming for the other kid," the new arrival laughed. Rad took in the other boy's appearance. The boy was around fifteen or sixteen, most defiantly of Asian descent, and greatly resembled Misa Saka. Rad was certain he was staring Yama Saka right in the face.

"Rad isn't a football player either" Carlos grumbled.

"Oh. Sorry about that. Throwing water balloons at people's a habit I picked up when I was two and a half" the new boy grinned.

Flashback

"_I my child rearing experience before you came along consisted of teaching the little kids in my high school's daycare how to throw water balloons at jocks Rad" Koji laughed._

"_Why don't you teach me that?" three-year-old Rad asked._

"_The only reason I taught them was I hated one of those kid's father" Koji shook his head. _

End Flashback.

'Definitely Yama' Rad thought.

"Oh yeah. This is Yama by the way" Carlos introduced them.

'Saka didn't even bother to change his son's name' Rad thought incredulously.

"Mr. Miyamory! Over here. Rad this is Mr. Miyamory"

Rad turned toward the approaching man. He was met with the face of the man who had spent years abusing his father. There was no longer any doubt in Rad's mind as to weather or not Mr. Miyamory was truly Hao Saka. The dark hair and eyes were the same. On the surface Rad saw a friendly goodhearted man, but looking deeper into Miyamory's eyes he saw something darker and crueler.

Plus the guy had a scar on his neck from when Koji had gotten a hold of the whip before Saka had started tying him to the post. Saka never made that mistake again. After that Koji had been tied to the post before Saka brought out the whip.

"Mr. Miyamory this is Rad. He's in town until his uncle makes bail" Carlos explained, tactlessly.

"Sorry to here about that" Miyamory/Saka smiled. The smile didn't reach the man's eyes. Could he know who Rad was? No, Rad didn't look like his father…too much. He had always been told that e looked like his deceased grandmother.

"Rad's an unusual name. It almost sounds Cybertronian" Saka commented.

'Shit. He suspects something' Rad thought. "It's short for Bradley" Rad lied quickly. Actually Saka was right. Rad had been named after one of his mother's old friends, an aerospace engineer he thought. His parents had named him and his brother after Autobots. Ax had been named after his father's best friend, Axel. Sono was the only one who hadn't been named after an Autobot; he'd been named after their ancestor.

"We're not gonna start the old 'The Autobots are out to get us' thing are we?" Carlos sighed.

"I just don't trust things that come from space and run off microchips and batteries" Saka said.

"Here, here" Mr. Lopez agreed.

'These guys don't know jack about the Autobots' Rad thought at the two's ignorance. Saka he could understand. He probably preached the evils of the Autobots to any one who'd listen. He probably held a grudge against Optimus for 1) messing up his deal with Scourge 2) threatening to kill him.

"Dear have you see my-" a woman Rad had to assume was his step-grandmother/ Mrs. Saka/Miyamory stopped short at the sight of him.

Then she fainted.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 6

"Mika!" Saka cried rushing to his fallen wife. 'Why did they not change their names more?' Rad thought. There was only one letter different in Mrs. Saka's first name.

"Mom!" Yama yelled. He looked back toward Carlos and Rad. "Go get –" He stopped and looked at Rad strangely.

"Carlos, go get a glass of water" Rad told Carlos. Carlos ran to the house to comply. "Is your mother diabetic?" Rad asked. Yama shook his head. "Tell your father to get her inside. The heat probably got to her," Rad said. Yama nodded and helped his father get his mother inside.

* * *

"So she just got over heated, right?" Carlos asked sitting on the back deck with his father, Saka, Rad and Yama. 

"Yeah" Miyamory/Saka said lighting a cigarette.

Rad stared at the cigarette as he flashed back to years ago.

_"How did you get those scars Daddy?" Four-year-old Rad asked. He and his father were getting ready to go out to dinner with his Mom and the twins. Actually his father was getting ready, Rad was lying on his parents bed watching Koji get ready._

_"They're burns from when I got to close to a fire" Koji told him._

_Rad didn't understand how a fire had caused perfect circles all over his father's torso and upper arms._

_"How-"_

_"Are you two ready?" T-Ai asked, walking in with the twins_.

It had taken a while but Rad had finally found out that they were cigarette burns. His father had been used as Saka'spersonal ashtray.

"Are you alright Rad?" Carlos asked. Rad realized he'd been staring holes in Saka's cigarette, which had almost burned down to the filter.

"Yeah, just tired. It's been a long day," Rad said. He needed to stop that. He was letting his guard down to much. Saka was going to figure him out if he kept going like this.

* * *

After dinner Mrs. Lopez had insisted that Rad go to bed early since he kept spacing out during dinner. Then she enlisted Yama and Carlos to clean the table and kitchen while she and the other adults went to the back deck to have a beer and talk (AN: that's what the adults in my family do after pigging out on crabs and shrimp during the summer). Yama didn't complain; this would give him a chance to talk to Carlos about the new kid. 

"Something ain't right about that guy," Yama said.

"You mean Rad? What's wrong with him?" Carlos asked.

"Did you see him when my Mom passed out. He wasn't worried. He looked like he was thinking about something," Yama said.

"Yeah, about what to do while the rest of us were freaking out. He was just keeping a calm head under pressure. Nothing wrong with that" Carlos said.

"Mom wasn't over heated Carlos. She was fine until she saw him. I think she recognized him," Yama said.

"How? Your parents have never been to Baltimore" Carlos pointed out.

"I don't know. But the feeling I got from all of them when they were in the same room with each other… it's just weird" Yama sighed.

"I think you're just jealous" Carlos smiled.

"Huh?"

"Alexis has a thing for Rad and you're feeling the competition" Carlos smirked.

Yama blushed. He had a crush on Alexis but he'd never really done anything about it because Alexis was three years younger than him. Not only would it be uncool for him to date her it would be cradle robbing. But that didn't mean he was just going to layback and let some creepy, possibly insane, kid come in and take her. She'd grow up one day and then she'd be his.

* * *

Hot Shot knew Sideswipe was up to something before Sideswipe even left on his road trip with Rad and Ben. He was certain Sideswipe was up to something when he called asking for a favor. 

He had to admit he felt a connection to the younger Bot starting when he found Sideswipe nearly dead next to his twin's lifeless body in some alleyway in one of Cybertron's less reputable cities. Sideswipe has made an unbelievable recovery considering the circumstances. Sideswipe took the loss of his brother really hard.

Apparently some rogue Autobots that had run in the same gang as Sideswipe and his brother had turned on them and tried to take Sideswipe to sell as a slave. Sideswipe's brother hadn't taken that to well and went after them. He'd caught up to them in the alleyway and fought them. Sideswipe's brother was fatally injured in the battle along with three of the Bots who tried to take him. The leader of the group had escaped with his life… for a while.

After Sideswipe had recovered he'd made friends with nine-year-old Rad and become close to Hot Shot, so close that Hot Shot had began to consider Sideswipe the younger brother he'd never had. Sideswipe had taken longer to be able think of Hot Shot as a brother since a first he felt like he was just trying to find a replacement for his lost twin.

When the rogue Bot, Spinner, had showed up in town Sideswipe went after him for revenge. Lucky for all parties involved- except maybe Spinner- Sideswipe had told Rad where he was going and Rad, possessing wisdom beyond his years in Hot Shot's opinion, realized Sideswipe was in over his head and went straight to Hot Shot. Thus leading Hot Shot to run off and save Sideswipe yet again from a fate worse than death. Sideswipe and Rad both probably believed that Spinner had planned on killing Sideswipe that night. Hot Shot thought that to for a while too, at least until they intercepted a transmission from the reforming Deceptacon army which was lead by Rollbar of all people. Apparently Sideswipe was in high demand among the Deceptacons because of who his creator was and the rogue group had been bounty hunters. They'd decided on Sideswipe because they were justifiably afraid of his twin.

"What do you want Sideswipe?" Hot Shot sighed into his long distance communicator.

"What can you do about weapons charges against a human?" Sideswipe asked sheepishly.

AN: For all Sunstreaker fans, yes i killed him before this fic even started. Go cry about it.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: Sorry about lateness but i think the content makes up for it

Chapter 7

"Ben's been arrested" Sideswipe added quickly. Hot Shot had looked like he was going to go into spasms.

"Don't do that to me! I thought I was going to have to tell Optimus that his grandson got arrested!" Hot Shot yelled.

"No. Ben just blew up half of the motel parking lot going after a rattle snake" Sideswipe tried to reassure him.

Hot Shot sweat dropped. "Why the hell did Koji trust his kid to that guy?"

"We know Rad's safe with him at least. The rattlesnake was a hundred yards away," Sideswipe said.

"Yeah. Rad is with a guy who will make mountains out of anthills and has access to deadly weapons. I feel so much better" Hot Shot said sarcastically.

"Don't forget deadly chemicals" Sideswipe reminded him.

"Can't forget those now, can we?" Hot Shot looked even more worried.

"Well can you do anything about the charges?" Sideswipe asked.

"Why should I?" Hot Shot asked.

"You _are_ the one at the base and _will_ have to put up with Optimus' ranting when he finds out that his grandson is staying with complete strangers because the guy who was suppose to be taking care of him got arrested" Sideswipe said slyly before hanging up.

Hot Shot stared at the blank screen for a minute. Then he immediately set to work looking for away to get Ben out of prison.

* * *

"So still no word on weather they're going to release your uncle?" Alexis asked. It had been nearly three weeks since Ben had been arrested and there was still no sign that they planned on releasing him. 

"No. They probably would have released him by now if he didn't keep trying to escape" Rad sighed. Ben didn't seem to grasp that the more he tried to escape the longer he'd be stuck in jail.

"He's insane" Carlos stated leaning back against the Saka's couch. (Yes they're at the Sakas)

"Isn't insanity genetic?" Yama asked. He'd been trying to turn Alexis off to Rad for the past three weeks but so far she just seemed to be falling harder and faster.

"Yeah. Good thing Ben's not genetically Rad's uncle" Alexis smiled at Rad. She had noticed that Yama didn't seem to like Rad very much but being her naïve self she thought he was acting the part of the over protective brother.

"Where'd your parent get off to?" Rad asked. As much as he didn't want Saka around, possibly putting it all together; Rad was even more uncomfortable with Saka being off somewhere, planning something. 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer' Rad thought bitterly.

"Mom's shopping and I have absolutely no idea where Dad is" Yama said. His parents had been acting weird since they met Rad. Yet another thing he had against the boy.

* * *

"Why, may I ask, did I get a call from the High Desert Police Department?" Optimus asked from behind Hot Shot. 

"Oh shit" Hot Shot hissed.

"Hot Shot" Optimus' voice had gone to the warning tone it usually did when one of his 'kids' were involved.

"Ben's been in police custody for about three weeks" Hot Shot admitted.

"THREE WEEKS! WHEN WERE YOU PLANNING ON TELLING ME THIS?" Optimus roared.

* * *

While Yama and Alexis were swimming in the Saka's backyard in-ground pool (lucky jerks) and Carlos was napping in one of the lounge chairs Rad decided to look around for something incriminating. His theory that the Sakas were idiots wasn't totally baseless. Saka had kept a yearbook from the high school he taught at in Tokyo. It was identical to the one Rad's father had. 

He was just about to put the yearbook back and head out to join the others when his communicator beeped. 'Has Sideswipe finally find away to get uncle Ben out of jail?' Rad wondered. Of course not.

"Rad! Are you insane? Do you know how-" Optimus' voice rang out.

"I found him" Rad interrupted his grandfather's triad.

"What?" Optimus asked.

"I found Hao Saka" Rad said simply.

"How? Where?" Optimus couldn't believe that after thirteen years of searching a teenager could find the guy just like that.

"My scanning program, I installed it on the library's-" Rad's explanation was cut short by a hand on his shoulder. He turned to find himself face to face with his father's worst nightmare.

* * *

"RAD! RAD ANSWER ME DAMNIT!" Optimus yelled into his communicator even though he knew it was no use. The signal had gone dead. Plus he doubted Rad would be in the position to answer him anytime soon. Hell he doubted Rad would be physically able to respond anytime soon knowing Saka. Koji hadn't been able to move after the beating he was given right before his father's death. 

"Shit" he hissed. The last time he had used language this bad was when T-Ai was pregnant and Koji had been kidnapped yet again by Scourge.

Optimus activated his com-link. "Jetfire! Get me the Autobot brothers and Ultra Magnus!" Optimus sighed before adding "Tell them Rad's been kidnapped".

AN: Like you didn't see that coming. R&R. Sorry if this is kind of late but the damn Internet service is down again.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Warning: Minor Child Abuse

Chapter 8

SLAP!

"I knew it! I freaking knew it!" Saka yelled as he continued to pound on Rad. Koji may have looked just like his father but Rad looked just like Eris. He'd known on some level that Rad was somehow related to the Onishi family but when he'd over heard Rad's conversation with Optimus he'd known for sure.

"Get up you little bastard", Saka hissed. Koji could have at least taken twice as much as what he'd just given Rad and stay standing.

Rad kicked Saka's feet out from under him. The only person that could get away with calling Rad a bastard was Jetfire, and even he didn't get away with it often.

"Oww! You son of a bitch!" Saka punctuated it with a kick.

Rad grimaced in pain. Now he understood his father's nightmares a little better; this wasn't exactly something you'd want to remember. He felt so…helpless.

Then Rad noticed that the blows had stopped. He looked up at Saka and watched the sickening grin spread across the man's face. Rad's last conscious thought was 'This is not going to end well'.

Then Hao Saka's foot connected with his head.

* * *

"What do you mean Rad's been kidnapped!" X-brawn yelled. He and his brothers were not taking this so well. But they weren't completely freaking out like they had when Scourge kidnapped Koji for the last time. 

"Rad was speaking to me when the signal between our communicators died. I have not been able to regain contact with him" Optimus explained.

"That doesn't mean he's been kidnapped. He might just be out of range," Magnus said.

"The communicator that Rad carries has a range greater than the distance between earth and Cybertron at any point in either planets orbits" Optimus said. He took another deep breath. "We also have reason to believe Hao Saka was in the vicinity of where Rad was staying.

"What?" a low, almost desperate voice asked.

Optimus turned to see Koji standing in the doorway. Koji had brought the twins up the week before since summer school had ended.

"What?" Koji asked again.

"Rad mentioned knowing where Saka was right before the signal died" Optimus said calmly.

"Oh my god" Koji slid to the floor, finding his legs could no longer support his weight.

"Koji!" Optimus yelled as his 'son' lost consciousness.

* * *

"Almost there" Ben whispered to him self. "Bingo!" the door of his cell fell to the floor and Ben was gone leaving nothing behind but the empty cell and a chain saw.

* * *

"Hey where's Rad?" Carlos asked finally waking up from his nap. 

"In the house changing" Yama said dismissively.

"But that was an hour ago. What could be taking so long?" Alexis asked. Yama rolled his eyes. Now they would go inside and probably find Rad conked out on the couch or something.

"I'll go see" He sighed getting out of the pool. The sooner he went in and made sure the kid was napping the sooner Alexis would shut up about him and get back to having some fun. Preferably involving the shed in the back yard and lots of making out.

"Rad? You in here?" Yama called. No response. Yama wondered where the hell Rad could have gotten off to. The sound of movement in the garage gave him a slight clue.

"Rad? You ok?" Yama asked, opening the garage door.

* * *

"What's wrong with him?" Optimus asked worriedly. 

"He's in shock Optimus. It's not surprising. He did just find out that his son was kidnapped by an abusive nut job," Red Alert told them.

Optimus sighed. "I have to contact Sideswipe. He's suppose to be with Rad. He'll need to be informed of what's going on"

"Where was he when Rad was attacked?" Sideburn asked bitterly.

"If Rad was purposely looking for Saka then he would keep Sideswipe at a distance so not to raise suspicions"

"A lot of good that did him" Sideburn said, bitterness still lacing his voice. He was defiantly having a nice long talk with Sideswipe when he got back about how to properly protect his 'nephew'. A talk that would involve a lot of punching and maybe a little kicking.

* * *

"Did you find him?" Alexis asked Yama as he came back outside. 

"He left. Something about his uncle" Yama said smiling. Alexis noticed that Yama's smile didn't reach his eyes. She wondered about it but didn't ask about it.

* * *

After Carlos and Alexis left Yama headed to his room and collapsed onto his bed. 'What the hell is going on here?' he thought to himself. He just didn't understand what was going on. Other than the fact that he was trying to take Alexis away from him, Rad didn't seem all that bad… but his father wouldn't hurt an innocent, would he?

* * *

"Ok, I want you three as back up while Magnus and I _speak_ with Saka" the undertone Optimus used on speak didn't escape the notice of the four Autobots he was speaking to, though they didn't comment on. "Is that understood?" 

"Yes sir" was the unanimous reply.

"Optimus!" Jetfire yelled running in the door. "We've got a huge problem!"

"What now?" Optimus asked, wondering, not for the first time in his life, if the cosmos threw multiple catastrophes at just to make his job harder for it's own amusement.

"Deceptacons managed to hack into the mainframe" Jetfire announced.

"What were they looking for?"

"We don't know but whatever it was, once they found it they sent a unit off to High Desert in a hurry" Jetfire said.

'Damnit now I have two people to worry about now instead of just one' Optimus thought. Then to Jetfire he said "Get Hot Shot. He's going to want to be on this mission too".

AN: If the last part sounds off it's because I'm suffering from minor blood loss. Next time I give blood to the Red Cross, I'm demanding to be sent home. I didn't pass out exactly but there are some blank spots in my memory between being in the lunch line and being wheeled to the nurse in a wheelchair.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: The whole Rollbar thing is because I killed off Scourge and Megatron refused to make the switch from Predicon to Deceptacon after the Deceptacons turned on him.

Chapter 9

"We're almost there, sir" the young Deceptacon informed his leader.

"Good" Rollbar smiled. He turned toward two warriors that were seated near him. "You'll have him back in no time at all" he assured them. Their agreement was quite beneficial. Once the two warriors had their lost one back they would offer him their complete and unwavering support. 'This is going to be to easy' Rollbar thought as Earth came into view.

* * *

"Are they sure Rad was kidnapped?" Ben asked Sideswipe as they sped toward the Lopez house.

"Yes. Rad was talking to Optimus about Saka when the line went dead. Rad built the damn communicator himself, it's more reliable than anything Red Alert ever made" Sideswipe said.

"Damnit. I should have escaped earlier," Ben hissed.

* * *

"Something's not right" Alexis said, frowning. She and Carlos were walking to Carlos' house.

"I know but what?" Carlos asked. They both sensed something wrong when Yama had said that Rad had left. Rad always told them when he was leaving. Plus it wasn't like he would send a message through Yama; he didn't like Yama any more than Yama liked him.

"I don't know. I think Yama was lying earlier" Alexis looked worried.

"Why though?" Carlos asked.

"Hey! Kids!" they turned to see Rad's crazy uncle jumping out of his Lamborghini before it even stopped. "Have either of you seen Rad?" he asked.

Alexis and Carlos looked at each other knowing their suspicions had just been confirmed. "Yama said he went to see you" Alexis said.

"Damnit. When?" Ben asked.

"About an hour ago" Carlos said.

"Come with me" Ben, ordered pushing them both toward the car.

"Wait a minute. What's going on?" Carlos asked. A sigh was heard coming from the car.

"We don't have time to explain now. We'll explain on the way," the car said.

"Did the car just talk?" Alexis asked worriedly. Carlos nodded. "Ok, for a minute there I thought it was just me".

"Please get in. Rad is in danger and the more time we waste here, the less likely we'll get Rad back unharmed" Sideswipe said. Carlos and Alexis looked at each other then nodded.

"Ok, but you've got to tell us what's going on," Alexis said.

* * *

Yama got up when he heard the garage door. He had to know what was going on. Why had his father thrown Rad, who was already beaten badly enough to require a hospital visit, so carelessly into the trunk of the family's Buick?

* * *

"So, what is going on?" Alexis asked, after a few minutes off driving.

"Rad was kidnapped about two hours ago" Sideswipe answered.

"How do you know that?" Carlos asked.

"Rad's communicator is more reliable than the sun rising in the morning. It the signal was cut off while he was talking to Optimus about-'"

"Wait! Optimus Prime?" Alexis asked, incredulous.

"Yes. I'm going to assume Rad gave you a fake name when he introduced himself. Well his real name is Rad Onishi. His grandfather was Dr. Onishi and his father is Koji Onishi, the adoptive son of Optimus Prime. He came here to track down a man named Hao Saka who has been living here under the assumed name of Kabuo Miyamory for the past eight years" Sideswipe explained.

"Huh?" Carlos and Alexis looked completely stunned.

"Saka fled Japan to escape charges that he abused Koji Onishi for eight years while having an affair with Koji's stepmother" Sideswipe continued.

"Mr. Miyamory wouldn't do that" Carlos defended his teacher.

"Hao Saka would and did. Optimus Prime witnessed it himself", Sideswipe said.

"Who's to say Saka and Mr. Miyamory are the same person?" Carlos asked.

"Rad. Before the connection died Rad told Optimus that he had found Hao Saka. And from what you two told us Rad was kidnapped from the Miyamory residence" Sideswipe answered.

"Alexis, what do you think?" Carlos asked the girl who had been mostly silent until now.

"I don't know. I'm kind of still stuck on the fact that Rad is the grandson of the leader of the Autobots and isn't an average kid from Baltimore" Alexis said, still stunned.

"Baltimore? Rad isn't even technically from Earth" Ben scoffed.

"What?" Alexis asked, eyes going wider.

"Rad was born on Cybertron and is mother was originally Optimus' computerized secretary" Ben explained nonchalantly. 'Sorry Rad' he thought 'but if she doesn't find out now and you marry her later, it's entrapment'.

* * *

"Ugh" Rad groaned, trying to sit up. He found that he couldn't for two reasons. 1) He'd lost a lot of blood sometime between Saka finding him and waking up here, and 2) he was tied down.

Rad settled for lying on his back looking at his surroundings. He found that he was in some sort of cave. It was man made, he guessed from the smooth walls. And he wasn't that far in, he could see the light at the entrance about twenty feet away.

'Does Saka honestly think that he can keep me here with ropes?' Rad thought to himself. He'd been getting out of ropes, chains, electronic locks, and zip cuffs since he was little. Being Optimus' 'grandson' put Rad in a lot of danger, so he was required to know how to protect himself (with a gun, not his fists) and how to escape incase one of his grandfather's enemies ever captured him.

'Ok how do I do this again?' he thought. 'Oh yeah. This is gonna hurt'. He managed to twist the ropes a certain way and then pulled his left hand free. "Oww" he hissed out loud. The rope scraped his hand and squished the bones together as it pulled through but at least he was free.

Rad stood up and then immediately sat back down. Just as he though, he'd lost too much blood. He felt an overwhelming sense of vertigo. His vision blurred, his head pounded, and he found that the natural sound of the desert he'd been hearing since he had woken up now seemed even farther away than before.

Rad felt himself falling again. 'That's not possible' he thought 'I'm already on the ground'. But as he watched, the ceiling of the cave became more distant as he fell.

* * *

BOOM!

"What the hell is that?" Carlos yelled.

Sideswipe and Ben both realized what was happening. They were under fire.

"Guys, I need you to get out and take cover," Sideswipe told them. Ben nodded, grabbed both the kids' arms and ran for cover behind the large rock face near by.

"Transform!" Sideswipe transformed into his normal form. The only odd thing about his appearance was that the Autobot insignia was noticeably absent.

"Ben?" Alexis whispered.

"Yeah"

"Why doesn't Sideswipe have an Autobot insignia?"

"He refused to have one put on"

"Why?"

"You'd have to ask him that" Ben said.

"Who's there?" Sideswipe yelled. Two transformers with out insignias stepped into view. 'No way' Sideswipe thought as his optics widened.

AN: R&R.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: Late due to laziness and relatives pissing me off.

Chapter10

"Koji? Can you say something?" Red Alert asked. He was getting worried. The man had been conscious for at least two hours but hadn't responded to anyone, even his wife.

"Maybe we should see if Sono and Ax can get him to say something" Axel, Koji's best friend, suggested.

"T-Ai doesn't want them seeing him like this. Plus there are some things that they don't know about and Koji doesn't want them to know about," Red Alert said.

"I don't get why he refuses to tell them about the abuse. He told Rad" Axel said.

"Yes, but Rad figured most of it out on his own. The kid has more resources than our intelligence organization (their version of the CIA. I have no idea what they call it)"

"We need to find away to get Koji to come out of this" Axel insisted.

"The only one who can bring him out of this is Rad" Red Alert said.

* * *

"Ugh" Rad moaned. He felt like he'd been in a cave-in. Then noticing the darkness surrounding him he realized he probably had. 'Great. Where the hell am I?' he thought.

The cave he was in now was completely different than the other one. This one was dark and had been for a very long from the looks of the green stuff growing on the walls. The roof was at least fifty feet above him and there was no exit in sight.

'I can see, so there has to be a light source in here somewhere' Rad thought. Looking around he located where the light was coming from. It was a small glowing object embedded in the cave floor.

* * *

"No way" Sideswipe spoke his thoughts out loud.

"Yes way Bro" Sunstreaker smirked at his twin.

"Aren't you dead?" Ben asked.

"Yes, I'm dead and standing here talking to you" Sunstreaker said sarcastically.

"GHOST!" Ben yelled grabbing his RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade).

"No! Ben don't!" Sideswipe yelled stepping in between them.

"Why not?" Ben asked innocently.

"Because I really don't want him to die any time soon" Sideswipe sweat dropped.

"But he said he was a ghost" Ben pointed out, having a blonde moment despite having brown hair (AN: I'm not making fun of blondes, I am a blonde so deal with it).

"He was being sarcastic" Sideswipe sweat dropped again.

"Ohhhhhhhh. Why didn't he say so?" Ben asked. Everyone sweat dropped.

* * *

Rad had managed to dig the metal plate out of the ground. It was strangely Cybertronian in design. It was a weird pentagon shape, green in color, and looked like something Rad had read about in the library on Cybertron.

'Why am I lugging this thing around?' Rad asked himself. He was currently wandering around the cave looking for another way out. The cave was bigger than he first thought. It had different rooms and areas. He also found a few things that definitely didn't belong there. Like steps, doors, handrails, and, if the prick on the edge of his consciousness was right, computers.

Sure enough in the next area, which looked like a spaceship, or an old base back on Cybertron; was a bunch of computers that looked slightly outdated but still useable for what he needed. He hobbled over to them, trying to ignore the pain in his ankle. The fall or cave-in or whatever had done more damage than he thought.

Rad looked over the consol, wondering if he could connect with it. He closed his eyes and searched for a connection to the computer. Finding it he brought the computer online and went to work. 'Thank you Mom' Rad thought. When he was two his mother had become so frustrated that she had to do everything involving the mainframe manually, she ended up tapping into the ability to connect to any computer even while organic. By some twist of fate Rad had inherited the ability. They had no idea how and since both T-Ai and Koji forbid Red Alert to experiment on Rad they weren't very likely to find out.

The long distance communication on the computer sucked. Rad couldn't send a message to Cybertron or even Sideswipe who was hopefully within a few miles of the mountain Rad was buried under. Rad decided to try and run a scan of the mountain to see if he could find an exit to the cave. A minute later the holo-screen projected a 3-D map of the mountain. He recognized it as the one the Cosmo Scope Research Center rested on. A red line marked a way through the cave to the surface. Rad broke the connection to the computer and hurried to the tunnel that would lead him to the surface.

* * *

"The intelligence of your chosen friends is astounding" the older Mech that stood behind Sunstreaker said sarcastically.

"Don't use sarcasm around Ben. I think we've determined that he is unable to tell the difference between it and seriousness, Ratchet" Sideswipe said exasperated. Then he looked back up. "Oh I almost forgot" Sideswipe through himself at Ratchet and latched onto him in a huge bear hug "Daddy!" he squealed.

"Stop that" Ratchet pushed, or rather, attempted to push Sideswipe off of him.

"Daddy?" all the humans present asked.

"He's my creator" Sideswipe explained.

"Ooookkkk"

"How did you know I was here?" Sideswipe asked Ratchet. "And how are you still alive?" he asked Sunstreaker.

"Deceptacons" the two said simply.

"WHAT!" Sideswipe looked at his creator and brother incredulously.

"The deal was that we find you for them and the three of you pledge your loyalty to me" Rollbar said from the shadows (AN: He must of picked that up from Scourge). "Also, it's come to our attention that you are currently in possession of Prime's grandson" Rollbar's sneer left no doubt as to why that was so important.

"And do I get a say in this?" Sideswipe asked, somewhat insolently. He was pissed that the Deceptacons were apparently not finished causing the Onishi family pain.

"Don't you want to get revenge on the Autobots who nearly killed your brother?" Rollbar asked.

"They are 1) Dead and 2) working for you" Sideswipe said.

"They were not working for me, the Autobots lied to you on that point. And we found only three bodies in that alley so one of your attackers escaped alive" Rollbar said glaring.

"Spinner is dead. He showed up in Autobot City three months after the attack. The only reason I'm still alive is because Rad sent Hot Shot after me when I went looking for revenge. Oh and the Autobots didn't tell me that Spinner and his stooges were working for you. Helpful hint, next time you hire mercenaries, make sure they don't brag about who they're working for. Spinner's crew wouldn't shut up about how there was no escape for me because the Deceptacons only hired the best" Sideswipe glared right back at Rollbar.

"This Rad kid saved your life?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Yes" Sideswipe said.

"Ok then" Sunstreaker pulled out his blaster and shot Rollbar.

AN: I know Ratchet isn't Sunstreaker and Sideswipe's creator but it just kind of fit.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: My friend Fallen Archangel Ben is writing a story that runs parallel to this called 'Ben and the PTA' that you might want to check out if you find Ben's antics amusing.

Also, for anyone who noticed or cared, I did delete "Soledite's Revenge". My dad has been reading some of my fic and does approve of his sixteen year old daughter writing slash fic. Sucks yes, but this is his computer, his Internet service, his house, and his rules. Plus it was too awkward for me to write, I lost my muse and I don't like being called racist.

Chapter 11

"That was unexpected" Sideswipe said looking at the smoking body of the Deceptacon's latest leader.

"Well if this Rad kid saved your life then we can't exactly hand him over to this idiot" Sunstreaker stated.

Sideswipe latched onto him in a hug. "That's why you're my favorite brother" Sideswipe laughed.

"That's not saying much considering I'm your only brother" Sunstreaker said, tolerating his twins clinginess.

"Yeah…. About that" Sideswipe laughed nervously. The sound of several some ones warping in filled the air.

"Sideswipe! Are you ok!' Hot Shot appeared next to Sideswipe.

"Who's he?" Sunstreaker glared at Hot Shot. Hot Shot glared back.

"I can explain" Sideswipe said quickly. Silence followed.

"Well?" Sunstreaker asked.

"I'm thinking" Sideswipe answered.

"I hope that's just some random psychopath because if that's my replacement there is going to be some serious ass kicking going down" Sunstreaker yelled.

* * *

Rad never thought he'd be so happy to see the open, ninety-six degree temp desert. He nearly dropped to the ground and kissed the dirt. A warm breeze blew across his face; Rad closed his eyes and savored the feeling. The light, the feel of the sunlight on his skin, was paradise after being stuck in that cold, damp cave for so long. 

The sound of rocks shifting brought Rad back to the reality of his situation. Berating himself for getting careless Rad swiftly ducked down behind some rocks and began to silently creep toward the source of the noise.

He found it came from a strange man setting up camp on a flat area at the base of the mountain. 'Who camps in the desert?' Rad thought to himself. Apparently a big man with a beard that had to be scorching in the late afternoon heat.

"Damnit!" the man yelled in a heavily accented voice as his small tent collapsed. He proceeded to swear in fluent Russian. Rad sweat dropped, reminded slightly of his Uncle Ben.

"Oh shit!" Rad hissed as his foot slipped causing him to fall down the embankment right at the man's feet. "That was graceful," he said sarcastically.

"You live?" the Russian asked in broken English. Rad nodded and tried to stand. His ankle had taken another beating during the fall. He fell into the Russians outstretched arms.

"I thought it was supposed to be a beautiful woman that falls into handsome heroes arms, not scrawny boy," The Russian said. It a second for Rad to realize the man was joking.

"Beautiful woman probably have better sense then to go anywhere near the desert. Probably afraid of what the dry air would do to their complexion" Rad laughed weakly. "Plus, if I'm a scrawny boy, I don't think you qualify as a handsome hero". The man laughed.

Then the Russian's grip on him tightened. "What happened to your face?" he asked with what sounded like repressed rage.

"Huh?" Rad asked confused. Then he realized Saka had hit him pretty hard, several times, so he had probably developed some decent sized bruises by now. It had been at least four hours since the attack, judging by the sun.

"I had a rough time. Got caught in a cave a little while ago" Rad lied smoothly. It wasn't a complete lie.

"Cave in left boot shape mark on your cheek?" the Russian asked, not believing him for a second.

Rad sighed. "I just need to call my uncle. Do you have a cell phone?" He asked purposely not answering the man's question.

"No cell phone. You need doctor. I'll take you to town" he said.

Rad weighed his options. Chances were that as soon as the line went dead Optimus had been on his feet running for the warp room. So Optimus along with a reason sized group- sixty or seventy Autobots-- were already in High Desert. Meaning Rad would be on the next ship or warp trip to Cybertron. Could he keep doing this on his own?

No. The moment Saka found out who Rad was for sure, things had become too much for Rad to handle. It was out of his hands now. "Ok".

* * *

"So you two are twins?" Optimus asked. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe nodded. "And you're their creator?" Ratchet nodded. "And none of you are dead?" The three nodded. "Ok. Now we can get back to finding my grandson and killing Saka?" 

"Yay!" Ben yelled waving around his flamethrower.

"Ben? Where did you get that?" Optimus asked.

"Get what?" Ben asked innocently.

"Never mind"

* * *

"I don't think we're both going to fit on that bike", Rad said, looking at the Russian- Dovanski's bike dubiously. Dovanski didn't believe in wasting natural resources by driving a small distance like twelve miles. 

"Well you can't walk and don't want me to carry you" Dovanski said. He didn't understand why the boy was so adverse to being carried.

Rad wondered why Dovanski didn't get that the damsel in distress thing was a major blow to a guy's ego.

"You can't exactly carry me twelve miles to town. You'd get tired and we'd make horrible time," Rad pointed out.

"We make worse time if you try to walk on your own" Dovanski said. Rad sighed. This was getting them nowhere. He shifted his hold on the metal plate and was surprised when he felt it start to shake.

"What the-" the plate was engulfed in a bright light and then-

"Ouff!' Rad and Dovanski grunted when a heavy metal being landed on them.

AN: Merry Christmas!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Dovanski belong to Fallen Archangel Ben.

Minicon language is in italics

Chapter 12

_Sorry!_ The little metal creature cried, quickly climbing off of Rad's already battered body.

"Oww" Dovanski groaned as it stepped on his outstretched hand.

_Sorry,_ it said again.

"It's ok. Got a name, Minicon?" Rad asked, sitting up gingerly.

_How'd you know?_ The Minicon asked.

"The Autobots have been our allies for seventeen years. I read about Minicon in some of their history books" Rad explained.

_Oh. My name is Highwire_, the Minicon said. Highwire stared at Rad's face for a little while, as though he was trying to remember where he'd seen him before. _Rad?_

* * *

"So what exactly are we looking for again?" Carlos asked. 

"Lazerbeak. It's a little black and blue box that turns into a mechanical bird" Optimus described as he watched the Ben and Carlos go through Rad's bags. Alexis had helped until she ended up finding a pair of Rad's boxers. She'd started blushing and ended up sitting down next to Sunstreaker who was stretched out on the ground watching the proceedings with casual disinterest.

"Why are we looking for this thing again?" Carlos asked. He'd been through these bags twice and hadn't found anything that resembled what the Autobots were describing. He'd found various items that just screamed Cybertronian technology, one had actually turned out to be a holographic photo album. It had turned on when Carlos picked it up and Optimus had identified the first picture as being Rad's family's most recent group photo. The man and woman in the picture were apparently Rad's parents and two identical children were Rad's younger brothers.

"Lazerbeak acts not only as a visual recorder but and audio recorder as well" Optimus explained.

"Meaning?"

"Rad is very organized. He would have used Lazerbeak to keep notes on what he found out about Saka" Optimus said.

"How's that going to help us find him?"

"It won't. But if we find solid proof that Miyamory and Saka are the same person we might be able to get Saka to return Rad in exchange for leniency" Optimus said.

"How can you promise leniency in court?" Alexis asked.

"I'm not promising leniency in court, I'm going to promise that I'm not going to kill him on sight."

"You'd actually kill a human?"

"Normally no. But Saka has hurt to many of my friends, my children, for me to continue to over look it any more"

"Yeah!"

Everyone froze and looked toward Sideburn. "Sideburn, please tell me your shield(1) has learned to talk" Optimus said, almost pleadingly. "And that I only imagined it sounded like two children who are still on Cybertron so I won't have to ground them until their my age"

Sideburn lifted up his arm and looked in the small space between his shield and his arm. "Umm…"

"Sideburn" Optimus said.

"Ooops" Sideburn grinned sheepishly.

"Sono. Axel. Get out of there" Optimus ordered. Two small humans slid out from under Sideburn's shield and dropped to the ground.

"Hey, Sideswipe and I are suppose to be the only twins in this group," Sunstreaker complained at the sight of the identical humans.

"Shut up Sunstreaker" Ratchet ordered clearly annoyed.

"May I ask why you two decided to tag along?" Optimus asked his 'grandsons'.

"We want to help Onii-chan," they said simultaneously. "Are you really going to ground us until we're fifty-eight million?"

"I'm considering it" Optimus said.

"You said until they were your age. I thought you were only thirty million," Ben pointed out. Optimus glared but otherwise ignored him.

"You two need to go back to Cybertron. We will find your brother" Optimus told the Onishi twins (AN: they're going to be called the Onishi twins because other wise it'll get real confusing).

"How?"

"We aren't completely incompetent in rescuing humans when they get themselves kidnapped despite all the protective measures we take to keep them safe" Optimus said somewhat bitterly. This was the fourth time he'd had to rescue Rad from something like this. Though the first two times couldn't really be considered Rad's fault. He'd only been three. The third time however he'd been twelve. Rad ditched school to hang out at the mall the same day that a group of anti-Autobot terrorists that were against the alliance with the Autobots, rolled into town. Needless to say a lot of chaos and violence followed. The conflict was solved, oddly enough, by Ben…and a few acid filled water balloons.

"You can't even find Lazerbeak. How you going to find our brother?" Sono asked. Then his eyes widened when he realized his mistake.

"Hand it over" Optimus ordered. The two guiltily handed over Lazerbeak.

"How- When? – What?" Hot Shot stuttered not getting how the twins could have swiped Lazerbeak without them noticing.

"They are Ben's nephews" Optimus sighed.

* * *

"Damnit!" Saka swore. The kid was gone and from the look of it there'd been a cave-in. 

'Great. Now how am I going to get my revenge?' Saka thought. Rad was his ticket to getting back at Koji. Plus if the kid was dead now that meant that if Prime came after him there was nothing standing in between Prime's foot and Saka's small, frail, human body.

* * *

"Still no change?" Jetfire asked entering the infirmary. 

"No" Axel said dejectedly. Koji was still just lying there staring unblinkingly at the ceiling. "What are the chances of T-Ai letting the twins try and get him to respond?"

"Nonexistent since the twins are missing now too" Jetfire sighed.

"Damn. Can't this family have a normal week" Axel said.

"Normal, for the Onishis, went out the window when the Colonel was killed" Red Alert said dryly.

"How do you figure that?" Axel asked.

"Think about it. If she hadn't died Dr. Onishi would have never married Misa Saka. If he'd never married Misa Saka he'd probably still be alive living happily with his wife and spoiling his grandchildren. Rad, if he was still Koji's son, would have grown up on earth with no real reason to know us other than his father use to be friends with Optimus Prime" Red Alert said.

"But Optimus-"

"Only stayed to take care of Koji. If Dr. Onishi had lived, Koji would have been raised by his father."

"Umm guys?" Jetfire spoke up.

"What?"

"Where'd Koji go?"

AN: (1) that wierd thing on Sideburn's arm.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 13

"WHAT?" Red Alert and Axel's head spun around to look at Koji's bunk. It was indeed empty.

"Oh shit!" Axel hissed realizing what had happened.

"Is there been a breech in security?" Jetfire asked, wondering how anyone could have snuck past them and grabbed the unconscious Onishi.

"No" Red Alert said. He understood what had just happened.

"Well how else does an unconscious human just vanish like that?" Jetfire asked getting annoyed.

"Koji was fully aware of everything that was going on around him the entire time he was here," Red Alert stated.

"Oh shit!" Jetfire echoed Axel's earlier exclamation. "Damnit! Axel, go guard the warp room. I've got to send out a search group".

* * *

Blurr was brought out of a blissful recharge by scraping coming from the bunk above his. At first he though he was going to have to ring Sideswipe's neck for waking him up. Then his memory bank kicked in telling him that Sideswipe was still on 'vacation' with Rad. The last three weeks had been unusually quiet without the bases two main pranksters. Blurr made a mental note to hogtie Sideswipe next time Rad needed an Autobot escort to go on vacation. The monotony of the past few weeks had been killer. 

Another scrape brought him back to the present situation. Looking over across the room to assure himself that Smokescreen wasn't trying to scare him. Sure enough Smokescreen was lying still on his bunk, although Blurr was sure Smokescreen was as wide-awake as he was.

Blurr silently got up to see what was in the room with them.

* * *

"So we met over a million years ago in the bowels of a giant planet eating planet?" Rad asked. _Yes_, Highwire said. 

"Ok" Rad said.

_I know it's hard to believe- Wait did you just say that you believe me_? 

"Yeah"

_Huh_? 

"I am the son of a hologram and a human, I grew up on Cybertron, and have worked on most of their 'classified' projects, there isn't any reason for me to doubt that I some how traveled back in time and talked to you" Rad shrugged.

"You live a weird life" Dovanski commented. For some reason he wasn't all that shocked about the miniature robot or it's revelations. Rad didn't ask why. It had been a long day. "Small robot transform like bigger robots?" Dovanski asked.

_Yes_, Highwire beeped.

"Then you carry Rad to town. He won't fit on my bike" Dovanski said.

"He has to scan something first" Rad stated. "You don't mind having a bike for a vehicle mode do you? We're a little short on sports cars right now"

* * *

Blurr and Smokescreen looked completely calm walking down the corridor towards the warp room. They were the only ones though. The entire sector seemed in a panic and they could both guess the reason. 

"Nobody's allowed in the warp room" the young guard warned timidly. He was, as the humans said, still wet behind the ears. Fresh out of academy Blurr would bet.

He reminded Blurr a little of Sideswipe. Or what Sideswipe would have been like if he hadn't run with one of Cybertron's most notorious gangs for a few years. He'd had the timid parts of his personality beaten out of him in those years despite everything his brother did to shield him from it. Whatever innocence he may have maintained had been destroyed when Spinner's gang tried to sell him to the Deceptacons. Sure he was still cheerful and acted like a child at times but he didn't have the look most rookies had before their first major battle, their first major loss. Blurr had noticed that after sharing a room with him for a few months. Not knowing Sideswipe's story he'd written it off as his imagination.

During a particularly bad argument Blurr had hit a nerve, although which one he couldn't be sure, he couldn't remember half of what he'd said. It had mostly come out in the heat of the moment. He did know that Prime's oldest grandson's glares had followed him around for days afterwards and Hot Shot had set him straight on how Sideswipe was to be treated. The discussion with Hot Shot had mostly involved yelling and a well-placed punch but he got that Sideswipe wasn't somebody to mess with. At least not while Hot Shot was alive. Eventually he and Sideswipe had ended up in some weird peer mediation thing the humans set up. They'd worked through their issues and Blurr had finally found out about Sideswipe's past.

"Sir?" the timid young guard inquired.

Blurr realized he'd been staring into space for the past two minute. The upside was that his stare seemed to have unnerved the guard even more.

"Our orders are to go immediately to Sector 14 at Base 52" Blurr said, turning his famous glare on the young 'Bot. As the guard relented Blurr almost felt guilty. He didn't notice the young 'Bot's smirk as he watched them enter the warp room.

"No fun in intimidating the young ones, is there?" Smokescreen chuckled after the door to the warp room shut behind them.

"Shut up" Blurr hissed.

"How about you both shut up," Koji suggested knocking the grill off of the vent opening. "And help me get to the ground".

"We don't have to help you, you know" Blurr said a little irked at the way the human was talking to him.

"Yet here you are when you could have just called Jetfire and had me escorted back to the infirmary," Koji said with a smirk that reminded them both that he was Rad's father.

"You made a very convincing argument," Blurr muttered as he helped Koji to the ground.

"Plus if your anything like Rad nobody would be able to stop you. And I think we've already determined that Rad takes after you in quite a few ways" Smokescreen sighed.

* * *

Axel stared at the warp room door for a few minutes after he heard the warp gate start up and then shut down. 

"I hope you know what you're doing Koji" He said before heading off to inform Jetfire that Koji was already gone.

AN: R&R


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 14

"Uhg" Rollbar groaned. He felt like he'd been hit with a hand blaster. The he remembered that he had been. "Those damn traitors" he hissed. He should have known better than to trust neutrals. Neutrals, when forcibly drawn into the war, switched sides like politicians switched stories. Oh they'd pay once he got his hands on them. Especially their lost one.

* * *

"What do you mean he's already gone?" 

"He's already gone," Axel answered simply.

"How?" Jetfire asked, despairing.

"He managed to sneak in some how. Probably through the vents" Axel theorized.

"AUHH. I have to tell Optimus that he's going to have company," Jetfire moaned getting up and trudging out.

"Odd" Red Alert commented.

"What's odd?"

"That Koji managed to sneak by his old partner in crime. I don't believe he's ever done that before" Red Alert monotoned.

"He did that time in Tokyo. Right before he got kidnapped by Scourge" Axel pointed out.

"No he didn't. He just figured he'd let you recharge some more after dealing with the Autobot brothers while they were pissed off. Koji's never snuck past you while you were fully conscious" Red Alert said.

"I was never standing in between him and his sons" Axel said.

"And you weren't today" Red Alert said. Then he grinned slightly at Axel's disbelieving look.

"You probably should have told Jetfire that Koji disabled the Cybertron to Earth communication network before he left" Red Alert commented after Axel recovered from his shock.

"How'd you know?"

"I wasn't created yesterday. I've been around to watch both Koji and Rad grow up. Who do you think was in charge the repairs from all their stunts?"

* * *

"That went quicker than expected" Rad commented on the speed of the trip to town. They'd made it into the outskirts of town just as the sun was setting. Luckily Highwire didn't have to be peddled or else Rad would have been screwed. His ankle was still messed up pretty badly, his body hadn't replaced the lost blood cells yet, and he probably had a mild concussion. 

"Tiny robot quick. I have to ride hard to keep up", Dovanski laughed.

_Thank you… I think_ Highwire said.

"Is there a hospital in this place?" Rad asked. He hadn't seen one or heard one mentioned in the three weeks he'd been there. But he hadn't needed one before, he probably didn't need one now but he could earn more sympathy points toward a lighter punishment if he went.

"No hospital. But rescue squad and pay phone" Dovanski said.

Rad sighed. It would probably be best if he just called Sideswipe to pick him up and take him to the nearest base with an infirmary. Medics always over diagnosed things when there wasn't a war on though. A little pity would go along way to reducing whatever punishment he was going to get from this but if the medics exaggerated his injuries… well he'd have four Autobots and three humans who wouldn't let him out of their sight till he was his grandfather's age.

"Let's find that payphone," Rad finally decided.

"I don't think you'll be needing that," Saka said standing behind him.

* * *

"Koji?" Smokescreen asked. 

"What?" Koji came out of his thoughts as he rode in Smokescreen's drivers seat.

"Why were those humans looking at us funny? We're in vehicle mode. We shouldn't standout that much" Smokescreen said.

"How should I explain this? Well for 1) you just spoke and 2) you're in Cybertronian vehicle mode" Koji said as though explaining something to his younger sons.

"What's the difference between Cybertronian vehicle mode and earth vehicle mode?" Blurr asked.

"For starters Earth vehicles have wheels" Koji said sweat dropping.

"Oh. Hey isn't that Rad?" Smokescreen said.

"Huh?" Koji said looking around from his seat in Smokescreen's cab. He spotted his oldest son struggling against a an older Asian man while what appeared to be a heavily bearded man and a small robot tired to pick themselves up off the ground. Koji saw red.

"Smokescreen"

"What?"

"Let me out now", the man said in deathly calm voice.

* * *

BOOM! 

"What the hell!" Optimus yelled as he shielded the humans, sans Sono and Ax, with his body.

"That's what I'd like to know" Magnus yelled back as he tried to protect the Onishi twins from the next attack.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" A crazy helicopter with a Deceptacon insignia laughed as he shot at them from the air.

"Deceptacons? When did they get here?" Magnus asked.

"Ooops" Sideswipe said grinning sheepishly.

"Sideswipe. Did you know they were already here?" Optimus asked.

"Maaayyybbbeee" Sideswipe admitted slowly. Everyone that hadn't been around during the first Deceptacon attack of the story face faulted.

"It doesn't matter now, now does it?" Rollbar chuckled stepping out of the darkness (again. He really spent too much time watching those stupid b-movies).

"Ok. Two against nine. I can live with those odds" Magnus said summoning his gun from subspace after pushing the twins toward some rocks that would act as cover.

"What makes you think there's only two of us?" Rollbar smirked. Several more Deceptacons came out of hiding. Two were jets, one looked like he was a tank in vehicle mode; one was just plain huge with lots of guns, and the final one was a huge shock to Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Hot Shot.

"I know I was wrong about Sunstreaker being dead but I know this guy was dead," Sideswipe said.

"Miss me kid?" Spinner laughed.

"Uhh, no" Sideswipe glared at the Mech that had nearly killed his brother.

"Does anybody stay dead around here?" Sunstreaker said looking really pissed.

"Nope" Spinner laughed.

"So the odds are now nine against seven. Still in our favor" Magnus said.

"We're not here to fight. We're here for revenge," Rollbar said smirking at Ratchet and Sunstreaker.

"You still have to go through us if you want to hurt them" Magnus said.

"Do you really think we're that unimaginative?" Rollbar sound slightly offended. "We're not going to hurt them physically. We figured that since they've been looking for their lost one for so long they can do without him for another few years"

To late the Autobots realized that one of the jets had gone invisible and snuck up behind Sideswipe.

"Ahh!" Sideswipe cried out as the Deceptacon grabbed him.

"Let him go" Sunstreaker hissed.

"Don't worry. We'll give him back eventually. But by then I don't think you'll be able to recognize him" Rollbar laughed as the Deceptacons warped out with Sideswipe.

AN: R&R. I'll update soon if Sideswipe doesn't kill me for having Squid head kidnap him.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

AN: I hate history papers. I just spent four hours writing one.

Chapter 15

"Oww! Damnit kid!" Saka cussed as he slapped Rad. It hadn't taken much to get the Russian and the robot out of the way. Just a well used tazer to their backs. But Rad, true to form, had to fight him. "If you don't stop now kid you're going to get it ten times worse than anything I ever did to your father" Saka hissed.

"Really"

Hao stopped at the sound of that voice. He knew that voice. He'd only heard it a few times over thirteen years ago but he hadn't forgotten it. He turned to see what could be only two things. 1) Hisao come back from the dead to reap his vengeance on his son's abuser or 2) A fully-grown, fully PISSED Koji Onishi.

"Oh shit" Hao cussed.

* * *

"Shit!" Sunstreaker swore. 

"Language" Ratchet warned. Sunstreaker glared at him.

"My BROTHER was just kidnapped and you're going to comment on my language!" Sunstreaker yelled.

"Yes" Ratchet said simply.

"Ok. Let's try not to panic here, ok?" Optimus stepped in to prevent further conflicts. "Oww" He hissed as his com-link activated.

"Optimus? Yes! Finally! The communication channels were blocked" Jetfire sighed.

"What is it Jetfire?" Optimus asked.

"Koji's on earth. We think he's in High Desert with Smokescreen and Blurr"

"What? How? Never mind, this is Koji we're talking about. When did he leave?" Optimus asked.

"About and hour ago. Axel was suppose to go guard the warp room but Koji got there before he did" Jetfire explained.

Optimus highly doubted that Koji had gotten to the warp room before Axel did. He also doubted Axel had actually tried to stop Koji. He always knew Axel's loyalty was to his friends and family first.

"Ummm, Where'd Ben go?" Carlos asked. Optimus looked around. Sure enough Ben had vanished. And Ben's favorite flamethrower was also missing

* * *

"Let go of me Squid Head" Sideswipe hissed at the Deceptacon that was holding him. 

"Go ahead Thrust. He's not going anywhere," Rollbar said dismissively. It was true. Their base was a maze. Unless you knew where you were going you couldn't find an exit if your life depended in it.

"Can I play with him?" Spinner asked, poking Sideswipe. Sideswipe gave him a disgusted look. "Not that way" Spinner slapped him.

"We need him alive but otherwise yes. Thrust, you should help. You expertise should come in handy there" Rollbar smiled evilly.

* * *

The growl Koji let out as he continued to pound Saka could only be described as animalistic. Of course Koji wasn't exactly trying to be a gentlemen about they way he was fighting. He was throwing punches and kicks without a thought.

"Should we stop him?" Dovanski asked Rad. He hadn't exactly liked getting hit with that tazer and he was pretty sure Saka had planned to hurt Rad badly but he thought they should probably call the police now… while Saka was still alive anyway.

"I don't think he's even aware of us still being here right now," Rad said watching his father finally letting his penned up rage out.

"Well he go to jail for murder if he don't stop soon" Dovanski said, cringing as he heard Saka's nose break.

"Trust me Saka has had this coming for years" Rad said.

"Yes but the law will not see things that way," Dovanski pointed out.

"Do you want to try and stop him?" Rad asked.

Dovanski watched as Saka's arm was twisted into a position he was pretty sure it couldn't naturally go. "Uhh… maybe we should let them work things out on their own" Dovanski said.

"AHHHHH!" Saka screamed as his arm broke.

"And now it's time to intervene" Rad said, hobbling toward his father while leaning on Highwire. As much as he wanted to see Saka die he didn't want to see his father go to jail for murder.

"Dad I think he's had enough" Rad said. Koji didn't seem to hear him since the beating continued. Saka heard however.

"Yeah. Listen to the kid" Saka pleaded desperately.

"Don't even talk about him," Koji roared. "If you wanted his help you should have never even thought about hurting him!"

"Dad, if you don't stop now then he's gonna die and you're gonna go to jail" Rad told his father now that he was sure his father could hear him. " And then who would raise the twins? Optimus isn't getting any younger. SO that really only leaves Ultra Magnus".

Koji stopped. "You're lucky my kids need me Saka," He hissed. "Rad are you ok?"

Rad raised an eyebrow. Dovanski had taken one look at his face and known he hadn't simply been in a cave-in.

Koji looked his son over. "Ok, stupid question. How about do you need to go to the hospital?"

"The nearest hospital's two towns over." Dovanski said.

"Is Optimus in High Desert?" Rad asked.

"Yes"

"Then I desperately need to go to the hospital"

* * *

"Sir?"

"Yes Starscream?" Rollbar asked.

"What exactly are Spinner and Thrust doing to that Autobot?" It was strange. Starscream thought Rollbar would have had the Autobot thrown in a holding cell. What they could possibly accomplish by whatever Spinner and Thrust were doing to him right now Starscream had no clue.

"They're going to turn him," Rollbar said simply.

"How are they going to turn him?" Starscream didn't like the sound of that.

"I don't usually ask for details. Thrust has done it countless times before though. Whatever methods he uses are most certainly effective"

* * *

"AHHHH!" Saka screamed"

"Huh?" Rad and Koji turned to see Saka running while he was mostly on fire.

"MWHAHAHA"

Koji and Rad sweat dropped at the helium sounding maniacal laughter. Ben had used his flamethrower on Saka.

* * *

"He has Thrust doing what!" Wheeljack hissed.

"He has him trying to turn the new Autobot prisoner" Starscream repeated.

Wheeljack was pissed. He hated Thrust enough for what he'd done to him. Thrust had convinced him that his fellow Autobots had abandoned him. He hadn't believed it long, he wasn't that stupid. But Thrust had kept him convinced just long enough to burn his bridges leaving him with no other option than to stay with the Deceptacons. Now Thrust was going to do the same thing to somebody else. "I'll see you later" Wheeljack said getting up.

Starscream watched him go knowing his friend had finally found a way to return to his home and friends.


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: Sorry for the delay but I'm working on other fics and I just had two really messed up weeks of exams.

Chapter 16

"Good. If he needs a hospital trip then Blurr can get him there the fastest" Optimus said into his com-link. "Ok. We'll be in touch"

"Well?" The twins asked once Optimus had finished his conversation.

"Koji is in High Desert. He has Rad and is going to take him to the nearest hospital to get checked over but they're pretty sure Rad will be fine" Optimus said.

"And Mr. Miyamory?" Alexis asked.

"From the sounds of it Koji arrived just as Saka was trying to grab Rad again" Optimus sighed.

"Meaning?" Carlos asked.

"Koji sat back and was willing to let Saka get away with hurting him for eight years. That's just the way he is. But if somebody messes with his children… that's another story all together" Optimus said.

"Is he…dead?" Alexis asked.

"No. Koji's not a killer under any circumstances. Saka is just going to be in a lot of pain for awhile," Optimus said.

"Can we go see Rad?" Carlos asked.

"Yes. Sideburn can take you two and the twins" Optimus' voice carried an unspoken order. An order that the twins ignored.

"We want to help get Sideswipe back" they said.

"Your brother probably needs you a lot more than Sideswipe does right now. Your father to" Optimus tried to explain. The twins probably didn't understand the extent of what Rad had gone through. All the twins knew is that Saka had something to do with their biological grandfather's death. Nothing about the abuse.

"Come on you two" Magnus said picking the boys up. "I'll take you to see your brother"Magnus efficiently put the twins resistance to an end.

* * *

Yama stared out the window with a dejected look. They'd just gotten a call from the hospital saying his dad was hurt in a fight. They hadn't gone into detail about what had happened other than his Dad was pretty bad off.

Yama had a bad feeling this had something to do with Rad. Rad's uncle had escaped from the jail earlier. He might have thought that his father had caused some of Rad's injuries. His dad _had_ looked kind of suspicious putting Rad in the trunk. Plus Ben was insane.

His mother exclamation of surprise brought him out of his musings. A Car carrier truck was passing them. But that wasn't what caught his attention. He didn't see a driver in it's cab. He saw four kids, two of which were Alexis and Carlos.

* * *

Koji hissed slightly as the disinfectant made contact with his hands. He hadn't even noticed that his fists were bleeding until the doctor that was checking Rad had pointed it out. Apparently his fist had been split open when he was punching Saka. 

"Humph" Ben sat in the corner pouting.

"Sorry Ben but if you wanted the first crack at Saka then you should have got there sooner" Koji sighed.

"You were suppose to be on Cybertron" Ben pouted.

"And you were suppose to be taking my son on a road trip, not hunting down Saka" Koji said.

Ben used his puppy dog eyes.

"You're still not off the hook" Koji said.

"Damnit"

* * *

"Nobody's allowed in to see the prisoner," the Deceptacon guard said as Starscream and Wheeljack approached the door to the prison. 

"We were sent to check on him to make sure he's ready for his next session with Thrust" Starscream said. The guard relented. Starscream was the second in command of the Deceptacons and not one to cross on a good much less a bad one like today.

"That was easy" Wheeljack commented as he stepped through the door to Sideswipe's cell. The sight of Sideswipe didn't surprise him as much as it should have. After all, he'd been through Thrust's brainwashing him self.

Starscream hadn't though, so he was thrown off a little by the sight of the Mech who'd been throwing around sarcastic comments at them a few hours ago sitting curled up in the corner looking so… so broken. "Damn" Starscream whispered.

"That's Thrust for ya" Wheeljack said.

"What exactly did he do?"

"Mind games mixed with regular run of the mill beatings"

"Mind games?"

"He hacks into the memory banks and alters the existing memories. Convinces the victim that the people closest to him don't care about him. That they'd abandoned him" Wheeljack said remembering his time with Thrust.

"Let's get him out of here for now. We can fix whatever damage was done later when we have the time" Starscream said.

"We?" Wheeljack asked.

"The guard saw me come in here. After this I'll be in the same lot as you. Rollbar doesn't take kindly to anybody turning traitor, especially the vice commander" Starscream said. Wheeljack just smiled.

* * *

"Carlos! Alexis!" Yama called running up to them in the waiting room. He noticed that they both gave him a nervous look. "What are you guys doing here?" He asked 

"Rad's here" Carlos said.

"Really? My dad's here to" Yama said. He wondered how Rad had gotten to the hospital. His dad hadn't been planning on taking him.

"That's a weird coincidence" Carlos said nervously.

"Stupid people! Are you coming? They say we can see Onii-chan now" the Onishi twins yelled from across the waiting room.

"Sono, Ax. Don't insult your brother's friends" Koji said coming up behind them.

Yama gaped. "Koko?"

AN: That was stupid end for the chapter. Anyway hopefully I can end this story in another chapter or two. R&R


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: I own nothing

AN: tired. This is the chapter that refused to be written, so I had to beat it out of my head.

Chapter 17

Sideswipe wasn't quite sure where the Deceptacons were taking him but as far as he was concerned as long as it wasn't back to Spinner and the cone head it was all right with him. Plus neither of them was acting really threatening or being rough with him. Hell the black one with a slashed Autobot symbol was practically carrying him since his legs had been damaged in his earlier secession with Spinner. The other Deceptacon seemed to be on alert for anybody they might come across in this back hallway.

Sideswipe then slipped back into a blissful unconsciousness.

* * *

Koji stared at the kid he hadn't seen since before Rad had been born. Yama had, as expected, grown up to look like his mother. Hopefully he didn't inherit his father's personality, Yama didn't seem to have inherited anything else from his father.

"EEEK!" the shrill scream came from Misa Saka. She'd apparently just recognized Koji and figured out exactly what had happened to her husband.

"Mom?" Yama asked turning toward his now hysterical mother.

"YOU!" Mrs. Saka hissed.

"What? No hug for your favorite stepson?" Koji asked sarcasm lacing his words. He had no love for the woman who had brought Hao into his house every time his father had been away on business.

"You…." Misa was quivering with rage now. Koji raised an eyebrow. "You hurt Hao" she accused.

"Yes and now we're even," Koji said.

"You hurt my husband and then call it even! You son of a Bitch!" Misa yelled as she tried to slap Koji. Koji caught her hand with no effort what so ever.

"That's not nice, calling your old best friend a bitch," Koji said.

"That WHORE was no friend of mine!" Misa shouted.

Koji's expression went from reasonably calm to dark fury in less than a second. "You damned lucky it was only Hao that ever hurt me or you wouldn't be still standing" his voice as dark as his expression.

"Is that a threat? I guess that's just another offense we can add to the list" Misa said sneering.

"List of offenses? Why don't we start with your husband's?"

"Huh?" Yama asked turning to the woman that had spoken. She obviously hadn't been there long, considering she and the two men with her both seemed out of breath.

"Let's see child abuse, murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, conspiring with an enemy power" The woman counted off on her fingers. "Did I miss any?"

"You got just about all of them Aunt Xandra" Koji said.

Misa's face had gone white as snow by this point.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Yama asked not liking the things this woman, Xandra, was saying about his father.

"Your father is wanted for several crimes committed over the course of eight years. One of them consisted of severe child abuse" Koji stated.

"Child abuse? My Dad's never hurt a kid in his life" Yama said.

"Yes he has. Koji's got the scars to prove it," the younger of the two men who were standing next to Xandra, said.

"What?" Yama asked getting more confused by the minute. Nobody got the chance to answer as a loud explosion shook the ward.

* * *

"Umm…Sir?" Thrust said, uncertainly. He really didn't want to be the one to deliver this news to his leader but he and Spinner did rock, paper, scissors and he lost, stupid paper losing to rock. Next time he was sticking with rock.

"Yes Thrust?" Rollbar seemed to be in a good mood. That was good.

"The thing is…WAIT A MINUTE! IT'S PAPER COVERS ROCK! NOT ROCK CRUSHES PAPER!"

"What?" Rollbar asked, annoyed at Thrust's out burst.

"Ummm… the prisoner's missing" Thrust meeped. As Rollbar unleashed a new depth of pain on him, Thrust's one thought was that Spinner would pay for this.

* * *

"We need to go after them now!" Sunstreaker insisted once again. He was getting tired of all these setbacks. First Prime said they had to come up with a plan, then that got put on hold when Prime's grandson was taken to the hospital. Damnit! He needed to go after his brother now!

Spinner was working with the Deceptacons. That was the one thought he couldn't shake. That and the shape Sideswipe had been in when he'd finally caught up with Spinner's gang.

It had been a big shock when Spinner's gang had taken Sideswipe and run. Sunstreaker hadn't believed it at first, Spinner was his friend; Sunstreaker had thought that maybe Sideswipe had just run off for a while like he always did for one reason or another. It had taken nearly a week for Sunstreaker to realize Spinner actually had taken Sideswipe, the time following that passed in a red haze. The haze only cleared when he found the gang. When he saw what they'd done to his brother.

Sideswipe had been badly beaten, over exhausted, and undernourished. He' also been dragged behind one of the gang members while in robot mode. Those bastards hadn't even given Sideswipe a can of wax!(1)

After taking in his brother's appearance Sunstreaker had become very calm and proceeded to systematically tear just about every one of those gang members to shreds until he himself had been badly injured. He'd managed to crawl over to his brother and just lay there thinking that at least he could die with his brother next to him if nothing else. He hadn't died of course. He'd woken up a few days later in a Neutral med bay. As he was recovering Ratchet had shown up after one of his colleagues had recognized his work in Sunstreaker's design and called him. After being thoroughly berated for taking Sideswipe and running off to be rebellious and whatever else young 'Bots ran off to do, Sunstreaker was told that by the time the Neutrals had found him, a unit of Autobots had already come through and that Sideswipe had apparently been taken by them. For the next four years he'd searched tirelessly for his twin, even joining the Deceptacons, who were very interested in his skills as a warrior and Ratchet's skills at building transformers.

Then, finally the Deceptacons had enabled him to hack into the Autobot mainframe and discover Sideswipe's location. After imagining for years that his brother being mistreated Sunstreaker was surprised that his brother was listed as being on Earth as an escort to Prime's grandson. Being a babysitter to some human brat was below Sideswipe but it was hardly the torturous work he'd envisioned his twin going through. Then meeting his brother on Earth and finding out Sideswipe was actually loyal to the Autobots and had actually been accepted as an adopted brother by on of them (even if Sunstreaker felt the irrational urge to tear Hot Shot apart) had changed his perspective on the Autobots completely. So here he was following Prime's orders putting complete trust in his twin's judgment to trust the Autobots, Ratchet also trusting Sideswipe's judgment since he was following along too.

"What the hell!" Hot Shot yelled at the front of their little convoy as he swerved to miss the group of three that just warped into the middle of the road.

* * *

"MWHAHAHA!" Ben laughed at the fire that had resulted from him setting off a small unit of C4 in Saka's room. It had only hurt the heart monitor but the look of total terror in Saka's eyes made up for it.

Then the door opened and two cops rushed in, guns drawn. One cop looking strangely familiar to Ben.

"Hey! It's that escaped nut job!" the familiar looking one yelled.

Ben then realized that it was the guard from the jail. "Bye-bye" he said jumping out the window.

AN: (1) I couldn't resist.


	18. Chapter 18

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 18

"Ack!" Hot Shot yelled transforming to avoid hitting the trio that had warped in without warning.

Hot shot tripped and rolled about twenty feet before skidding four feet on his face. "OOWW" he moaned.

"Hot Shot?" one of the mysterious trio asked.

Hot Shot looked up from his spot on the ground trying to ignore the acute embarrassment he felt knowing half of the command staff had just witnessed his face plant. "Huh?" he asked looking at the black and white stranger. Then he realized it wasn't a stranger.

"Wheeljack!" Hot Shot yelled. Actually it was more of a growl, but considering their last meeting Hot Shot felt it was warranted. He attempted to launch himself at Wheeljack but found himself thrown back by a relatively pissed looking Sunstreaker.

"What?" Hot Shot asked looking pissed too.

"Incase you hadn't noticed, that guy you're attempting to maul is holding my brother" Sunstreaker glared.

Hot Shot calmed down enough at the mention of Sideswipe to realize Sunstreaker was right. "What happened to him?" he asked taking in the 'Bot's appearance.

"Spinner and Thrust " the Red and white seeker said simply.

"What?" Ratchet hissed lowly.

"I said Thrust happened to him", the seeker said again, not bothering to repeat Spinner's name. Thrust's name was all that was needed to convey the seriousness of Sideswipe's injuries.

"Who's Thrust?" Hot Shot asked.

"The best Deceptacon interrogator/mindbender on Rollbar's payroll" Ratchet stated.

"Mindbender?" Hot Shot asked.

"Messes with existing memories, usually to turn them" Ratchet stated seemingly oblivious to Hot Shot and Sunstreaker tensing.

"Yeah, so you might want to get him checked out sometime soon" Starscream said.

"Then we need to get to Roswell pronto," Hot Shot said.

* * *

"Ok, thanks Optimus" Koji said turning off his communicator.

"Well?" Rad asked as he and his brothers stared at their father expectantly.

"Sideswipe has been rescued and is being taken to the Roswell base for repairs" Koji said. He grit his teeth knowing the next words out of his son's mouth.

"When can we go see him?"

"When he returns to Cybertron to resume his duties" Koji said knowing he was going to face serious opposition from his eldest child and the twins weren't going to be any happier about it.

"Why?" Rad said sitting up a little straighter in his hospital bed, wincing slightly because of his bruised ribs.

"Because your hurt and not leaving this bed till the doctors say you can" Koji stated.

"Why? There are perfectly good doctors at Roswell, and they don't charge anything" Rad pointed out. Koji stared blankly at him.

"You want to go to the place where they'll make you stay in bed for at least a week and will have an armed guard at your door twenty- four seven?" He asked.

"Ummm…. No" Rad admitted.

"Then you can stay here" Koji said.

* * *

Ben crept slowly along the foot wide ledge looking for the window to Rad's room. Hopefully, it wouldn't be guarded by the cops.

Stupid cops made him jump out a window. All he did was blow up a few machines in Saka's room. Stupid cops. They better not try to stop him from finding his nephew.

* * *

Wheeljack was surprised that the Autobots let him stay in the med bay unguarded. He was certain that Hot Shot would have told them who he was. At least that was what he figured from the glare and attempted mauling earlier.

'Why am I in the med bay anyway? I'm not hurt' he thought.

"You're here because the Autobots didn't think to put a brig in this place despite it being a military instillation" Ratchet said.

"Wait, I said that out loud?" Wheeljack asked.

"Yes"

"Oh" Wheeljack said slightly worried about what else he might have said. "Why didn't the Autobots think to put in a brig?"

"They were at peace when this place was built so they decided that they didn't need it" Ratchet said rolling his eyes at the stupidity on the base's designer.

"Figures" Wheeljack muttered.

"Why are you here?" Wheeljack asked.

"I came to thank you" Ratchet said simply.

"Why?"

"You _did_ bring my son back from the Deceptacons before Thrust could do any major damage" Ratchet said.

"So the kid's gonna be all right?" Wheeljack asked.

"Yup. He and his brother are made of tougher stuff" Ratchet said some what proudly.

Wheeljack just nodded. He'd heard why Rollbar had wanted both twins so bad. Sideswipe was apparently pretty weak without Sunstreaker but together the two were nearly unstoppable.

* * *

"Move it!" Hot Shot growled trying to push Sunstreaker back.

"No, you move it!" Sunstreaker growled.

"I said one and only one can see him now! If you two don't stop this and be reasonable neither of you will be able to see him!" the medic in charge of Sideswipe yelled at the two, who were now stuck in the doorway.

"Which is why I should go in now and Mr. Sunshine here can go in later when Sideswipe wants to see him" Hot Shot said still trying to push Sunstreaker back.

"I'm his twin. What makes you think he doesn't want to see me now?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Maybe because you joined the Deceptacons and were going to help Rollbar kidnap Rad" Hot Shot pointed out.

Sunstreaker stopped pushing suddenly, startling Hot Shot enough that he stopped too. Hot Shot had on one rare occasion seen Sideswipe's 'glare of doom and death' as the nine-year-old Rad had so aptly put it. He now discovered that Sunstreaker's glare would probably have been named 'the glare of universal annihilation'.

The low growl Sunstreaker let out should have served as warning for Hot Shot but he didn't head it quick enough.

"Ouph!" Hot Shot groaned as he hit the opposite wall.

Sunstreaker' face was suddenly only inches from his. "The only reason I joined the Deceptacons was because I needed to save my little brother," he hissed.

"Save him from what? He was safe with us for the past four years!" Hot Shot wasn't sure that yelling at Sunstreaker was the best thing to do at the moment but it made feel a hell of a lot better.

"All I knew was that when I woke up my brother was gone. Kidnapped by Autobots _again. _The second time in less than a month my little brother was in the hands of my enemies. I didn't know what to expect" Sunstreaker paused for a second. "They said you're the one that found him in that alley. Do you remember what exactly had been done to him? That was done by a group wearing the Autobot insignia. So you'll have to excuse me for not thinking too highly of the Autobots when it comes to Sideswipe's safety" Sunstreaker said in a low, dangerous tone. The he stood up and walked into Sideswipe's room.

AN: stupid writer's block. Sorry for the wait. R&R


	19. Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Chapter 19

"AhaaaAhaaaAhaa!" Ben howled as he swung on a cable toward the window to Rad's hospital room.

THUMP!

Inside the room Rad, Koji, the twins, Carlos, and Alexis stared at the window.

"Did he forget that all hospitals have been required to have bullet proof glass windows since 2008?" Carlos asked as Ben slid down the window.

"Probably" the Onishi family said as one.

* * *

Hot Shot sat watching the sunset, one of the few things he liked about Earth. He could always lose himself in the sight. 

Almost always.

Today he had a lot of things on his mind. What Sunstreaker had said made a creepy kind of sense. Autobots--- though they were working for Rollbar at the time--- had been the ones to hurt Sideswipe. Sunstreaker had no reason to think that Sideswipe had been safe or relatively happy in the four years they'd been separated. So to make sure his brother was safe he joined the Deceptacons to rescue his brother. And in Sunstreaker's place Hot Shot would probably done the same thing as the other vain yellow warrior (AN: My words not his hehehe).

The sound of metal scrapping rock startled him out of his reverie. Wheeljack stood sheepishly near the bend in the path leading to the base entrance. "Uhh… hi" Wheeljack said, clearly expecting to get attacked again.

"Hi" Hot Shot not really knowing what else to say. His anger at Wheeljack had vanished when Ratchet had gone into detail about mind bending. It explained why Wheeljack had attacked him all those years ago anyway.

Hot Shot just hoped Wheeljack would forgive him for not knowing earlier.

* * *

"Stop that!" Ratchet snapped. 

"Huh?" Sideswipe gave the wounded puppy look that he often used when he was younger and in trouble.

Ratchet sighed, "Fine" he said as he stopped trying to push his son away from him.

"Yay!" Sideswipe squealed wrapping his arms around his father in a big bear hug. Ratchet sighed again.

"Are you ever going to grow up?" Sunstreaker asked.

"No" Sideswipe said looking up at his brother. Then his voice got serious "So?"

"So what?" Sunstreaker asked.

Sideswipe glared at him "You do realize what we have to do now right?"

"Go home?" Sunstreaker shrugged.

"No" Ratchet said.

"Why?" Sunstreaker asked.

"We just seriously pissed off Deceptacon High Command. What do you think they're going to do if we go back to the Neutral camps?" Sideswipe asked.

"Come after us and kill a ton of Neutrals while they're at it" Sunstreaker said, understanding dawning.

"Exactly" Ratchet said.

"So?" Sunstreaker echoed his brother's earlier question.

Sideswipe smiled his 'smirk of fake innocence'.

* * *

Hot Shot and Wheeljack came back in laughing like they never parted. After Hot Shot had blurted out that he was sorry Wheeljack had apologized too. Actually the whole thing reminded them of a crappy chick flick. 

"Huh?" they both came up short at the sight of a smiling Sideswipe, who shouldn't have been up yet.

"Hi guys" Sideswipe practically chirped.

"Damnit, what did you do this time?" Hot Shot asked, wondering what the younger Mech could have possibly done in the last half an hour that he'd been gone.

"Nothing bad" Sideswipe said with a little kid smile/pout.

"Then why do you look like the cat that just ate the Lazerbeak?" Hot Shot asked.

"I don't think an organic creature digest a bird-like robot" Sideswipe stated.

"You know what I mean!"

Sideswipe took his hand off his chest, where it had been since they arrived to reveal a red insignia.

"You--- you ---you got an insignia" Hot Shot sputtered in shock.

"Yeah, we all did" Sideswipe said with a big grin.

"But you said you wouldn't wear an insignia because the Spinner incident" Hot Shot said. When Sideswipe started working for the Autobots after he recovered from Spinner's first assault he'd flat out refused to wear any insignia because when it came down to it an insignia was just a piece of metal, not something to judge the wearer by. Then he stopped being so philosophical and ran off with Rad to plan the next major prank on Jetfire.

"Yeah but it's kind of required" Sideswipe said.

"It only required for…. You officially joined the Autobots!" Hot Shot exclaimed. Even though he'd worked for the Autobots for four years, Sideswipe was technically still a Neutral.

"I thought you'd be headed back to the Neutral camps now that you have your family back" Hot Shot said thinking about how Sideswipe used to talk about how much he missed his home.

"Not when the Deceptacons are after us. The Neutral camps wouldn't still be standing after they got through with it" Sideswipe said sadly. "So we're all straying here. Even Sunny" Sideswipe said the last part with a knowing grin.

"NOOOO!"

* * *

"What was that?" Blurr asked entering the base. 

"Sideswipe probably just told Hot Shot that his brother will be staying with us" Optimus sighed.

"Ok"

* * *

"That went better than I expected" Sideswipe sighed. Hot Shot hadn't thrown a hissy fit like they expected him to. He'd just fell on the ground… twitching… a lot. Not _too_ bad of a reaction. 

"You're back" Blurr commented after he turned the corner to where Sideswipe was leaning up against the wall.

"Yup".

"And you already talked your way out of the infirmary?" Blurr asked, remembering that Sideswipe had been stuck in the infirmary for two weeks after his second run in with Spinner and the 'Bot hadn't been happy about it.

"It helps when your dad is a medic" Sideswipe gave a shy smile.

"That would make things a lot easier" Blurr commented. Keeping conversation between them going had always been difficult for some reason. They usually just sat in a comfortable silence, but the occasion seemed to call for them actually talk.

"I got to get back to Ratchet and Sunny" Sideswipe said, looking away when the tension got to be too much.

"Yeah" Blurr nodded as Sideswipe turned to leave. "Just don't go away like that again" he said. Sideswipe stopped and turned around to face Blurr again with a questioning look. "Autobot City has never had a duller week" Blurr explained.

Sideswipe smiled and nodded before continuing on his way.

Blurr watched him go. 'He's gonna be the death of me yet' Blurr thought not unkindly. Then he smiled under his faceplate and turn to go back to the command room to speak with Prime.

The End? I might just leave this here because mostly everything's been resolve. if you want more review and tell me.

AN: I'm on partial computer restriction so i might not update my fics that often. sorry


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